Pavel Durov, the Russian entrepreneur behind the VK social media network and Telegram instant messenger and international calling service, has raised $850 to develop his own blockchain network that will serve as the transactional mechanism behind a new Telegram based cryptocurrency.

Telegram has already revolutionised the instant messaging world through its use of real time international voice calls and its popular Telegram Channels which bring instant updates from popular individuals and organisations throughout the world to one’s fingertips at an instant. Furthermore, Telegram’s enhanced security vis-a-vis similar western apps has made it a hit around the world.

Now, Durov wants to make Telegram both a way to connect with individuals, groups and businesses and also a way to do commerce through the use of cryptocurrency payments using its unique soon to be unveiled cryptocurrency.

Beyond merely triangulating the marketplace, Telegram’s plans could help bring daily cryptocurrency transactions to the masses but integrating a crypto-wallet and crypto-purchasing/trading opportunities with a highly popular personal and mass communication app.

At present, most cryptocurrency enthusiasts are a combination of imaginative/forward thinking investors, those interested in the niche but nevertheless expanding crypto-marketplace and those looking to sell luxury goods in a quick and easily managed fashion. A Telegram crypto could help to merge these existing markets with the day to day spending that most internet shoppers already engage in through peer based websites like eBay or Craig’s List, or professional e-commerce behemoths like Amazon.

The potential to build a cryptobased market of small private sellers with the added benefit of expanding into large scale retail or even AliBaba style wholesale via an augmented Telegram app and Telegram crypto wallet, is very substantial. It is no wonder then that Telegram’s crypto plans have turned heads from Moscow to Wall Street and the Silicon Valley to East Asia.